Help ID a picture

[ewilen]

http://www.gearsonline.net/macross/misc.php

It's the top picture (which you can click to enlarge). I doubt it's fan art. Any idea of source and subject? The packs are definitely nonstandard, and there may be some details of the Valk itself which aren't standard to the original VF-1.

[Skull Leader]

This was an early design concept for VF-1 Fastpacks.. not a special variant or anything, just an early idea. It came out of either the TIAS books or Memory Perfect, I cannot recall.

[Hiriyu]

That one is not in Perfect Memory or TIAS 3 or 11. Almost looks fan-made to me, but a neat variant nonetheless. Any guesses as to what the pod under the front fuselage is? FLIR?

[ewilen]

Also not in TIAS 5 or 7, or the mecha art portfolio. Not in the Macross Model World Hobby Handbook. The overall style reminds me of the watercolor sketches on pp. 89-98 of TIAS 3, but I don't think it's the same hand.

[RichterX]

That VF-4 in gerwalks, it arms are backwards, the hands pop out from the place the shoulder joint should be...

I dunno they look like prototype concept images

[ewilen]

Well the VFX-4 gerwalk is signed by Kawamori, though I'm not sure where it came from. There is a plane with an unfamiliar profile in the background of that picture; it's almost Legioss-like, but also admittedly very small and sketchily drawn.

I sent to a note to the GEARS site owner, maybe I'll get an answer.

Edited November 22, 2004 by ewilen

[jipe]

Never see this picture in TIA 3, 5, 7, 11; Macross perfect memory, Macross gold book, or any other macross art book !? But interesting concept, it looks like the strange valks you can see on the cover of entertainment bible 27, or inside entertainment bible 51 (VF 1SR,...)

Maybe from a Sky Angel issue ?

[Ido]

Well the VFX-4 gerwalk is signed by Kawamori, though I'm not sure where it came from. There is a plane with an unfamiliar profile in the background of that picture; it's almost Legioss-like, but also admittedly very small and sketchily drawn.

I sent to a note to the GEARS site owner, maybe I'll get an answer.

About the Vf in the background, i'm sure that is just a red vfx-4, look at the intake and the exaust/feets.

Really like a lot more the VF-4G design, that thing is fugly IMO.

[ewilen]

Here's the answer I got...

Those images were found in old issues of B Club Magazine and the backs of older Macross art books.  The Valkyrie prototype at the top of the page seems to be a rejected production drawing that was later recycled as a historic prototype in the Macross setting.  All Studio Nue artwork.

Based on this the next place I'd look if I had the materials is B Club Magazine and the Red/Blue volumes 1&2 of TIAS. But I don't have any of them.

The site owner added:

If Macross fans visit Gears Online I can think of scanning some more images.

[Beltane70]

The FAST pack in the first picture looks similar to the ones used in the Macross 2036 PC Engine game.

[ewilen]

A little bit, but not much. Compare (this is apparently from B-club):

http://www.gearsonline.net/macross/bclub/val2.jpg

The main similarity I think is having guns built into the front of the packs, but the VF-1R I think just has one barrel/pack, while this thing has tri-barrels. And the extra doohickeys near the back of the packs are pretty different.

[Seto Kaiba]

It does bear a strong resemblence to a VF-1R from the 2036 art. Perhaps a preliminary sketch?